‘We’re creating real opportunities for Australian artists’: Music licensing platform Melodie launches

Australian-owned music licensing platform Melodie has launched with the aim of connecting local composers with global content creators.

They also have ambitions to get more Australian music in screen productions.

This is in association with established music, sound and tech company Uncanny Valley, which like Melodie is also based in Glebe, Sydney.

Melodie managing director and founder Evan Buist maintains the timing is perfect for such a service, as domestic content quotas rise and screen producers increasingly look to support Australian content.

Buist tells TMN, “We’re creating real opportunities for Australian artists to have their music placed in all kinds of content, including well-known, internationally distributed TV formats.

“Our relationships with Australia’s leading broadcasters, production companies and agencies – as well as those around the world – means composers can focus on what they do best, writing music, while we go out and sell it.

“Of course exposure via a high-profile advertising synch placement or a big TV show can be a career launchpad, but at the end of the day Melodie provides a continuous flow of revenue generated from composers producing great, relevant music.”

Aside from working for 15 years as a composer, sound designer and audio engineer for brands as National Geographic, Fox Sports and Paramount Pictures, Buist’s involvement in music took the form of writing jingles for mid-range TV commercials.

“What I did take away from my time as a jingle writer is how incredibly lucrative performing rights royalties can be, especially over time,” he points out.

During a period spent overseas and stretched for finances, he recalls how welcome cheques from APRA AMCOS were.

From there came the idea to help other composers “who at times are often living hand-to-mouth.”

Two years in production, the entire Melodie process is automated, from music and licence selection to auto-extraction of key data from audio files.

Head of licensing & innovation, Charlton Hill, explains, “Uncanny Valley is working closely with Melodie, integrating new, cutting-edge technologies across the platform to streamline the search process.

“These technologies will allow Melodie to better identify and classify the emotional attributes within a music track.

“From AI-driven mood clustering and track comparison analysis to licensable API integrations, we have some game-changing tech on the way.”

The A&R team, led by Andy Wilson, member of ‘90s NZ band Push Push, is seeking to add more composers to their roster.

Buist sums up, “It’s true that production music used to be a dirty word. In fact, it remains something that composers often overlook.

“But in reality it can form a solid part of a sustainable career in music.

“It takes a while to build up a great catalogue and to find those placements, but it’s a worthwhile pursuit.

“As a famous 90s Pantene Shampoo commercial once told me, “it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen”.